The online digital art store Bugaboo is turning 7 and is having a week long challenge event to celebrate.  I first met this group last year while working with Cupcake Inspirations.  Quickly, they became one of my favorite online digi providers (mainly because they have a series of snarky wise cracking woman digis that make me laugh out loud).

Seven years for any group is a huge deal, let alone an online crafting company, so I thought it was worth celebrating for them.  They put out seven challenges over seven days, and I jumped on board.

Day 1 (which started on Saturday) was an inspiration photo day.  I just love that little cake and thought it was a perfect image to launch their birthday celebration.  I printed out their digi Turtle Trio Bithday and started coloring it in with my copics.  I tried to use colors that matched up with the inspiration photo (except all that lovely turtle green).  I pulled out a sentiment stamp from Craftin Desert Divas and stamped out a birthday greeting in cobalt Archival ink.  I trimmed up the image and backed it up with some teal card stock.  I think at this point we all know I am not really known for making decent birthday cards, but this one might be an exception.  I think this one actually was pretty cool.

Day 2 of the celebration (Sunday) brought out a sketch challenge.  I pulled out last weeks Freebie Friday, Seahorse, and flipped the image on my computer.  I printed out the image and set about coloring it.

I colored in the image and fussy cute it out (I really do hate fussy cutting).  I pulled out some sand looking printed paper and two cool looking blue papers and trimmed them up so they would fit the rectangles in the sketch.  I then pulled a really cool scrape of metallic blue card stock and die cut it with a Little B die set.  I started assembling everything, and trimmed up some of the sand looking paper into a banner.  I stamped a birthday sentiment from a Fiskars stamp set.  I grabbed some dimensional stickers and adhered the sea horse, so he could pop off the page.

Day 3 of the days of challenge (Monday) was a color challenge.  I pulled up on my computer Dolphin Duo and printed it out.

I snagged my copics and went to town coloring the image.  I tried to keep my pale teals really pale, but I feel I may have gotten a little heavy handed with it.  I trimmed the card stock and backed it with some pretty dark and pale brown wood grained printed paper.  I adhered everything down to an A2 card and added a bit of a birthday sentiment under the image.  In hindsight, I wished I had added the sentiment to the bottom of the card and taken it further away from the image.  Next time, I guess.

Day four, (Tuesday) was a time for a bingo challenge.  I knew I needed a little break from the underwater theme, just cause I needed a little bit of snark and sass.  I pulled out one of the new digis, JJ Coffee.  I decided to follow the middle path of the bingo card, featuring ribbon, bugaboo image and blues.

I printed out the image and started coloring it in with a wide variety of blue trios.  Yes, I probably should have given JJ some blue highlights, I just couldn’t do it.  I then pulled out a Funny Bones sentiment and stamped it into the blank area of the image.  Then I added a simple happy birthday sentiment to the top of the card stock.  I pulled out some pretty and witty blue printed paper and adhered it to an A2 card.  I then pulled two different ribbons from my stash and adhered both of them to the bottom of the focal image.  Finally I pulled some sequins out, and added them with a bit of glossy accents.

Day five of the challenge (Wednesday) was a theme day.  The theme of the day was a “funny” birthday.  Easy peasy.

I printed out the Seahorse digi again (this time leaving it face the intended way).  I colored it in using my copics.  I then pulled out some simple printed paper and adhered it to the A2 card.  I stamped some simple leaves hoping it looked like seaweed (it didn’t), and colored those leaves in with my spectrum Noir glitter pen.  I pulled out my favorite snarky birthday sentiment from Funny Bones and stamped it onto some white card stock.  This sentiment always makes me laugh.  I then took some pearls drops and put them onto the card trying to get them to look like bubbles (which it didn’t).   I know I keep it simple, but it looked good, I think.

Day six of the birthday bash (Thursday) was another theme challenge.  This one was ‘make a card for a kiddo’.

Now at this point I have run out of fun underwater Bugaboo designs, and I just wasn’t feeling like repeating an image I had already done.  So I pulled out an older (at least for me) digi called Teddy Bear Topper.  I love this digi.  I think it is so much fun and sweet and just scream ‘children’.  (my kids are all teddy bear kids).  So I colored up the image with my copics, making certain to have both a boy bear and a girl bear so that I can give the card to what ever gender I need to.  (Seriously, I love coloring this digi).  I fussy cut out the top of the image, and pulled some old alphabet block card stock and trimmed it up to fit an A2 card.  Then I pulled a scrape of white card stock out and (splicing several different stamp sets together) a sentiment.  I added some dimensional tape to the image and adhered it to the card.  I’m not certain at this moment if this works, but I really do like the fun feel to it.

Day seven and last day of the celebration (Friday) was a recipe challenge.  The recipe was as follows: create a project that uses 2 bows, 3 layers, and four pearls.  I have never done a recipe like this before, and it felt a little daunting (paper piecing is never my strong point).

Now I lucked out with this card, because the Freebie Friday feel on the last day of the challenge.  There was a great fish download, and boy was I excited about a new underwater image to color.  I printed out Make It Snappy Fish and went to town coloring it in with my copics.  I trimmed out the card and backed it with some white card stock.  Then I went digging in my paper collection and found a light blue dot page that on one side had a large dot print and on the other, a small one.  I pulled out a bit of orange dot paper and started trimming up all the papers.  I am pretty sure the paper piecing was a fail, but I had the intentions when I started.  I pulled a couple of little buttons out and tied some floss into bows through the buttons.  I adhered them with some glossy accents, and since I had the bottle out and unclogged, I went ahead and added glossy accents to the bubbles.  Finally, I pulled out some tiny pearls, and added four of them to the corners of the fishy image.  Not my favorite piece from the week, but one I am still proud of.

If that isn’t enough, I don’t know what is.  But I do want to say Happy, happy birthday to Bugaboo.  Here is hope for a healthy and happy next seven years.